Telangana High Court asks the govt for a case wise compliance report

The Telangana High Court has directed the State government to submit a case-wise compliance report on payment of retiral benefits. The court warned of strict action if delays continue, as thousands of retired employees are still awaiting their dues.

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday asked the State government to file a detailed case-wise compliance report pertaining to the payment of retiral benefits to retired government employees, while posting the cases to June 10 for further hearing.

Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao directed the Government Pleader for Services to file the case-wise compliance report, while warning that any failure to comply with the court directives by the next date of hearing would result in the finance secretary, Sandeep Kumar Sultania, being directed to appear before the court on every subsequent hearing of these contempt cases.

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Confusion arose over the exact number of cases complied with by the government during the hearing of 764 contempt cases listed on Thursday. While the Government Pleader claimed that retiral dues of all the contempt petitioners were cleared except for a couple of dozens owing to a few technical glitches, the counsels appearing for the petitioners present in the court submitted that only around one-third of the cases were complied with by the government.

Noting the rival contentions of the Government Pleader and the counsels for the retired employees, Justice Rao directed the government to clear all dues of the contempt petitioners as per the March 23 cause list and submit the case-wise compliance report by the next date of hearing.

The Telangana government has, from Tuesday, begun to honour the orders of the Telangana High Court to clear the dues of retired government employees, nearly 24 months after their retirement and 48 hours before the deadline of April 9. Hundreds of retired government employees have received their dues, some fully and some partially.

While around 15,000 government employees are estimated to have retired from March 2024 and were waiting for their retiral benefits to be paid, hundreds of them approached the High Court and obtained orders to get their dues cleared in six to 10 weeks. With the government failing to honour those orders, several of them moved the High Court once again with contempt petitions. After providing adequate adjournments, as sought by the Government Pleader on many occasions, the court on March 23 fixed April 9 as the final deadline to clear all the dues of the contempt petitioners.

“The court has noted the submissions of the Government Pleader for Services that dues of almost all the contempt petitioners were cleared and also the contentions of the counsels for the retired government employees that many of the contempt petitioners are yet to receive their payments fully,” said CR Sukumar, counsel for retired government employees. “Accordingly, the court has directed the Government Pleader to submit a detailed compliance report case-wise by the next date of hearing, failing which the finance secretary, Sandeep Kumar Sultania, will be asked to appear before the court on every subsequent hearing.”